Survive!

by Les Stroud

  Set fire to a small island if you have to. If it were me, I wouldn’t hesitate if it meant seeing my family again. I could live with myself if I had to take drastic measures to be rescued. How about you?

  Chapter Five

  WATER

  No fire. No shelter. No food. Except in the most extreme cases, doing without these won’t kill you…at least not quickly. But nothing compares in seriousness to the lack of water. So while I always seek out locations with good supplies of firewood, shelter material, and food sources, I would trade them all for a constant supply of clean water. Always try to conserve what you have, and start looking for an alternative source as soon as possible.

  You can live for more than three weeks without food, but you likely won’t make it much past three days without water. Granted, in a crisis, some people have survived as long as 10 days without water, but their ability to function will have been radically reduced after the third day. And depending on your circumstances, in as few as 24 hours you could start suffering the harsh effects of dehydration, particularly in a hot, dry, and windy location such as the desert. First the migraines and headaches kick in, followed by a rapid drop in energy. Now let’s see you get that fire going, build that shelter, or make a bunch of scorpion traps!

  After only 24 hours surviving in the Kalahari Desert, the lack of water in my body brought on terrible headaches. On my fifth day there, with temperatures in the sun and on the sand pushing 140°F (60°C), my water ran out altogether. Over those five days, I had urinated only once, and that was after having drunk a gallon (about 4 L) of water for each of the first four days. On the fifth and sixth days, the few ounces I made by chewing plants and distilling my own urine still didn’t suffice. Even the act of eating the plants used up water in my system needed for digestion. The very act of chewing in extremely hot weather used up energy I didn’t have to spare. Sometimes doing nothing is better than trying something that doesn’t work.

  Fortunately, I could walk out of the desert. But what if you can’t? Our bodies need 2 to 3 quarts (2 to 3 L) of water each day. Throw in heat, cold, stress, exertion, or diarrhea, and you need much more. To survive in the wilderness you need to know how to find water, make water, and even prevent your body from losing water.

  One thing that people get hung up on with water (assuming they’re lucky enough to find it) is whether it’s clean enough to drink. They aren’t sure whether to drink it at all, for fear of getting sick. I go over this in greater detail later in this chapter, but for now, learn this mantra: Drink, drink, drink. You will die a lot faster from dehydration than from the effects of drinking untreated water. In fact, in all but the rarest circumstances, drinking untreated water won’t kill you. Even if you do contract parasites, most of them won’t hit you for at least a week, if not longer. Should you make it out alive, you can treat most of them (albeit with powerful drugs).

  * * *

  STROUD’S TIP

  After drinking questionable water, crush up some charcoal and place it in a rag. Strain water through the rag and drink the black liquid. It can prevent stomach upset. Make sure you use charcoal from non-poisonous wood sources!

  * * *

  And water in remote areas usually is safe to drink. Sure, if you’re downstream from an African village or just outside a town that happens to use the stream as its septic system, you’re probably going to ingest pathogens. Then again, if you’re that close to civilization, you’re not in a survival situation at all! I’ve been infected with giardia, a nasty parasite that wreaks havoc on your bowels, after drinking from a seemingly pristine lake. I’ve suffered horrible bowel cramps after drinking from a seemingly pristine river. But I lived to tell the tales. And I haven’t died of dehydration.

  I happen to be a huge fan of adventure races, events lasting anywhere from eight hours to two weeks, where contestants bike, run, paddle, and take on many other types of adventure travel through remote wilderness. The first one who makes it to the finish line, even if it is a week later, wins. During one such race, organizers had warned contestants not to drink the water along the route without first treating it, for fear of ingesting giardia.

  The first stretch of the race was a slog through miles of thick bush during the height of mosquito and blackfly season, with temperatures cresting at 86°F (30°C). The race leaders took 24 hours to complete that stage. Many other teams, including mine, took nearly twice that.

  At the first checkpoint in the race, a station where you can stop, check your time, and even eat a bit of food, most teams arrived looking terrible and suffering from the dry heaves. Not mine, though. Why? At every stream, river, or swamp—even the muddy ones—I forced myself and them to drink, because I knew that otherwise, under those extreme conditions, dehydration would soon shut us down. So when we finally made it to the first checkpoint (even though we were one of the last teams to get there), it was noted that we were in better shape than any other team.

  It seems all the other teams were scared to drink untreated water, and none of them wanted to commit 15 minutes to treating their water for fear of losing ground in the race. So they ran on, hurting themselves in the process through dehydration. Not only did my team feel fine but none of us got sick, even though we drank from dozens of streams and swamps without filtering.

  That said, never be cavalier about water. It is quite possible to drink from contaminated water sources and within hours find yourself knocked down from pain and diarrhea, only making your ordeal even worse. Your best bet is to assume that all water is contaminated and to purify it if you can do so.

  But if your choice is between drinking untreated water or dying of dehydration…drink.

  Rationing and Preserving Water in Your Body

  ALMOST AS IMPORTANT AS PROCURING WATER TO DRINK is the ability to preserve the water stores in your body. The best way to do this is to minimize your exertion, if at all possible. With this in mind, I have one simple rule from my friend Dave Arama: If you don’t have to stand, sit; if you don’t have to sit, lie down. You also lose more water when you talk than when you don’t, and when you breathe through your mouth as opposed to your nose.

  Of course, when you’re in a survival situation and trying to build a shelter, gather food, find water, or just get out, you don’t have the luxury of sitting around. Nevertheless, there are measures you can take to keep your body’s water loss to a minimum.

  First, although you will have to work, try to keep your workload to a consistent level that minimizes perspiration. After all, through sweating, one of your body’s primary methods of cooling itself, you lose moisture through your pores. In hot, windy conditions, you may find yourself tempted to strip down to all but the bare minimum of clothing. Don’t! One of the fastest ways to have water sucked from your body is through convection: those warm breezes will only serve to dehydrate you more. So wear a loose-fitting shirt to slow the process, and get out of the wind if you can. You also lose a fair bit of moisture through your head, so cover it to help slow the loss of moisture, as long as you can do so without overheating.

  What about rationing any water supplies you have on hand? Like many topics I cover in this book, this one is bound to spark debate among survivalists. Let’s say you have enough water to drink 8 ounces (237 ml) a day for one week, but you think you may be on your own for two weeks. You have a couple of choices: Drink the water in a week and hope you find another primary water source in the meantime, or cut your daily intake down to 4 ounces (118 ml) and stretch it out for two weeks.

  Some survivalists argue that you’re better off drinking the 8 ounces a day, thus keeping the water in your body and your organs fully hydrated. But I believe that if you’re stuck for a long period of time and are unable to find an ample water supply, having those 4 ounces every day can be an incredible physical and psychological boost. Although I can’t prove that physiologically this is the best strategy, personally I would opt for rationing.

  * * *

  STROUD’S TIP

 
Make sure you have enough water for yourself, given the situation. Make sure everyone in the group has enough water for themselves. Repeat these two lines over and over!

  * * *

  Physiology

  TO APPRECIATE THE IMPORTANCE OF WATER FOR OUR WELL-BEING, let me remind you that you should drink a minimum of a gallon (about 4 L) each day, even if you’re sitting in the shade doing nothing. Water is constantly being used by our bodies through normal processes such as breathing. Throw in the extra stress of surviving in the wilderness—which may entail extreme physical activity, perspiration, vomiting, diarrhea, and bleeding as a result of injury—and you can see how the situation can become dire. Even digestion, particularly after eating foods that are sweet or spicy, as well as those high in salt or protein, uses up precious stores of water in our system.

  From everything I’ve read, death by dehydration is horrible and painful. In fact, you can start to feel the many adverse physical and mental effects of dehydration after dropping your body’s water supply by as little as 1 percent. In addition to the headaches I noted above, nausea, poor judgment, and depression are all symptoms of dehydration, symptoms you don’t want to be dealing with anytime, let alone when you’re trying to survive in the wild.

  Thirst is not a good indicator of your body’s need for water: you may not notice when you need more. While surviving beside a lake in Canada’s boreal forest during a heat wave, I forced myself to drink about 8 ounces (237 ml) of water every hour, whether I felt thirsty or not. This simple act kept me feeling refreshed and even helped mask the hunger pains I otherwise would have suffered, as I had little food at the time. Oh, I was still hungry, but drinking regularly, almost constantly, seemed to take away the pain.

  So in a survival situation, setting a mandatory time to drink each day, especially in the winter (when you don’t normally feel like drinking), will help you get past your mind’s lack of attentiveness, itself another symptom of dehydration. If you are not alone in your ordeal, then you have the added responsibility (and sometimes advantage) of looking out for the others in your group. The buddy system used by underwater divers should be used in survival as well. Check others for red or pink skin and excessive sweating, two sure signs of overheating. A dehydrated person will often be slow, clumsy, or withdrawn, and show poor judgment (I must have a lot of chronically dehydrated friends!). This simple test also works well: pinch the skin on the back of the hand. If the pinched skin returns very slowly—that is, does not “snap” back quickly—to its original shape and form, the person is suffering from dehydration. Another sign is urine color. Dark yellow indicates dehydration. And if you are not peeing at all, you are not drinking enough water, period.

  Some guidebooks distinguish between mild, moderate, and critical levels of dehydration. Don’t get bogged down in semantics. Dehydration is a quick killer and preventing it should remain among your highest priorities.

  Finding and Collecting Water

  REGARDLESS OF YOUR LOCATION, KEEP THIS IN MIND: Almost every environment has water present to some degree. Your ability to survive will likely depend on your ability to find and collect it. The more proficient you are at identifying indicators of nearby water, the better off you’ll be.

  I separate water-finding and water-collecting methods into what I call primary sources and last-ditch efforts. The amount of water the human body needs to thrive is much more than what you can get by licking dew off leaves or peeing in a hole and distilling the condensed water. If you are going to make it out of the wilderness alive, you will need, often desperately, to find a primary water source.

  Locating Primary Water Sources

  The best primary sources of water are those that flow. These include rivers, streams, and creeks. If these aren’t available, you have to move on to progressively more stagnant bodies of water. Lakes and ponds are the next best primary sources, followed by swamps, marshes, fens, bogs, et cetera. Snow, slush, and ice are also primary sources of water.

  To locate a primary source, your best bet is to study the topography of your surroundings. You need to understand the different indicators of water around you and react to them.

  Look at the water source you have found. Scan the shoreline or check upstream for contaminants such as dead animals. The higher the altitude of your source (such as a mountain stream), the purer the water. Remember that even the sweetest-smelling and freshest-looking mountain streams may have an upstream contaminant you can’t see.

  Walk Downhill: There are subtle differences among regions, but walking downhill is usually an effective strategy for locating water because it is a sucker for gravity. Valley bottoms are great places to find water.

  Observe Changes in Vegetation: Be on the lookout for changes in vegetation, which may indicate availability of water. If you see a place where vegetation is darker or denser than in the surrounding area, there’s a good chance you’ll find water there, even if you have to dig for it.

  Watch the Sky: Another small trick that I’ve often used in survival situations (but it takes a seasoned eye) is to look for subtle changes in the color of the sky. Typically, the sky directly over a source of water will look bluer than the rest of the sky, reflecting the water source. And early in the morning, due to moisture content and temperature differences, low-lying clouds and fog tend to congregate directly over a body of water.

  Follow Animal Trails: Animals need water too, and their trails may lead you to a life-giving source. If you see numerous game trails, they may even make a formation, much like a series of veins (or like a river system on a topographical map). Where the sections join and create a V, the point of the V will indicate the direction of water. But be warned that following animal trails can sometimes lead you nowhere.

  Follow Birds: Birds congregate near water, and the direction of bird flight in the early morning or late afternoon might indicate a source. Grain-eating birds are never too far from water; when they fly straight and low they are usually headed for water. But note that these are subtle indicators and following them doesn’t guarantee you’ll find a source.

  Bear in mind too that most wild creatures urinate and defecate in the same place they drink. So once you’ve located a primary source of water, move at least a couple hundred yards from the spot where the game trail meets the water, preferably upstream. Giardia cysts tend to sit closer to the surface of a lake, so if you can weigh a vessel down and send it to the lower depths you have a better chance of retrieving uncontaminated water. A weighted jar or can with a rope tied to it works well. Once you’re sure the vessel is full of lower-level water, pull it up quickly to minimize the amount of surface water that gets in.

  Track Insects: If you see insects (especially bees or ants) going into a hole in a tree, there may be water in the hole. Plastic tubing can be used to siphon the water, or a cloth can be stuffed in the hole to absorb it. The presence of swarming insects also indicates that water is near. Bees are never more than a few miles from a water source, although they have irregular watering times.

  Use Ice, Snow, and Slush: If you find yourself trying to stay alive in a part of the world or during a season of the year when ice, snow, and slush are present, you have a good source of water at your fingertips, particularly if you are able to make fire. As with many aspects of survival strategy, however, opinions about eating ice, snow, and slush are subject to debate; mine don’t jibe with the prevailing sentiment.

  Many instructors will tell you that you should avoid eating snow, largely because it will reduce the temperature of your body, which will then consume precious energy during warming. This is true, but given the vital role that water plays in survival, I believe the opposite. Eating snow and ice will cool your body down and may slightly abrade the inside of your mouth. But if it’s the morning and you’re working hard to assure other aspects of your survival, eating snow can help to maintain an optimal body temperature. And the fact is, you need that liquid.

  You have to be careful about eating ice and snow later in
the day, though, when you’re tired and the air is cooling off. Eating snow when your defenses are down can do you more harm than good. This applies not just in the dead of winter, but in springtime too—anytime you are eating snow.

  The ideal is to be able to melt the ice and snow and even heat it before you drink it. If I don’t have a fire available, I like to fill a water bottle (or similar vessel, or even a Ziploc bag) with snow, and slip it inside my clothing during the day while I work or in my sleeping bag (not touching my body) at night while I sleep. It takes a while for the first bit to melt, but once that’s done, the rest melts quickly. If I can manage to do this overnight without chilling myself, it’s great to wake up to find the water melted and ready to drink.

  Water from snow (or rain, for that matter) is very low in salt and minerals, which we need to survive. But that is a longer-term concern that should not affect your decision to eat snow, if you need to, during a survival ordeal. Add edible plants and grasses to your melting pot to help supplement these missing nutrients.

  Last-Ditch Water Sources

  If you have exerted your best efforts to find a primary source of water and have come up empty, you need to turn to last-ditch water sources, those that may not keep you thriving but will at least keep you alive for a while.

  Collect Rain: Most of us have heard about the ravages of acid rain, but this isn’t a concern when it comes to survival: you can drink rainwater anywhere on earth. To harvest enough to keep yourself going, you need to use as big a catchment area as possible and contain the water in some sort of receptacle. If you don’t have a suitable container on hand, dig a hole in the ground. This should hold water for a while, but you will need to line it with clay, plastic, or some other impermeable material, and keep it covered.